The focal point of Trinity's collegiate life — the Dining Hall
SECURING THE FUTURE INDEPENDENCE OF TRINITY AS A TRUE COLLEGE From the Warden, Dr Evan L Burge The Minister for Education, Senator Susan Ryan, recently announced a cut of 25 per cent from 1984 in the Government's recurrent grant to University Colleges and Halls of Residence. For Trinity this means a drop from the 1983 level of $72,000 to $54,000 next year, instead of the $79,000 we might have expected if the grant had continued to be indexed for inflation. To recover this from student fees means an increase of $2.50 per student each week, quite apart from any rise due to inflation. Not surprisingly, the Australian Association of Heads of Colleges has been making urgent submissions to the Minister directly and through the Tertiary Education Commission. Many of us feel that the whole concept of collegiate education is under threat. The tendency is to think of mere board and lodging instead of the broad social and educational purposes of college life. I am told that in some official circles the term "medieval" is being used, in a contemptuous tone, to describe places like Trinity. The contempt is not justified. It shows ignorance both of colleges and of the middle ages. Our tradition began in Oxford and Cambridge eight centuries ago. The whole basis of it was then, and still is, to bring together masters and learners in a community where they can interact fruitfully. In their submission, the Heads point out that only two or three years ago the Tertiary Education Commission adopted a definition of "collegiate residence" which included the following list of activities relating to the social and cultural development of students: (1)
Debate or discussion on matters of current concern;
(2)
Visiting speakers from the University or the community;
(3)
Association with the residences of University staff members and others of scholarly or professional distinction;
(4)
Encouragement to members to take responsibility for the various aspects of College life;
(5)
Opportunities for members to meet across faculty, national and socio-economic boundaries.
The University lacks no capacity, the College Heads point out, to turn out highly proficient technologists. There would be few people, however, who are not concerned about the threat to our culture and our civilisation by the continuing and ever-widening rift between technology and humanist values.
The College experience does as much or more than anything else to expose young people to the contribution that both forms of human study, arts and science, can make to the maturing of judgement and personal development. Recently a survey was conducted among College residents throughout Australia by Professor David Beswick. His survey contained a set of questions based on the agreed definition of collegiate activities. The questions were designed to elicit the level of satisfaction experienced by students in respect to these activities. Professor Beswick's comment on the answers to these questions is: "When the students were asked to nominate the most important aspects of college or hall residence from a long list of attributes, they most often nominated study facilities. Supporting academic services including individual help with study and tutorials were also mentioned. An equally emphasized theme was social activities, meeting people and developing social skills. These two major themes are .. . what collegiate life is traditionally expected to provide and it is significant that students continue to value such services." (see Table 11, Beswick Report) I was interested to discover privately from Professor Beswick that the level of student satisfaction is even higher in traditional institutions, like the Colleges of the University of Melbourne, than in other colleges and halls. His survey also shows that although the parents of students here are generally better educated than the parents of students in other places they are, in general, not wealthier. It is simply that they prefer to spend their money on the education of their children.
A few weeks ago I met a student in Canberra. She had moved recently from a College which had been converted to a virtual hostel, with its dining hall turned into a series of shared "cook-your-own-meal" kitchens. She had moved from there to A PUBLICATION OF TRINITY COLLEGE WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE a traditional College and told me what a relief it was "to belong Registered by Australia Post — Publication No. VBG 4336 to a place where someone cared about you".